Looking back, the World Wide Web has drastically changed the way we market properties.As little as 15 years ago our company produced a newspaper to advertise our listings.Our newspaper featured each of our properties with one photograph and a short description; we’d print and distribute 30,000 copies every other month.This was very expensive and very time consuming but was by far our best lead generation source.

Fast forward to today. We hire professional photographers who shoot close to 100 digital photographs, virtual tours and often aerial drone photos; we then select and sort out the best to create an attractive flow.Then we upload these organized photos to multiple outlets so they can be delivered to our partner websites and portals.(MLS, CENTURY21.com, REALTOR.com and ZILLOW.com to name just a few of the 100’s of sites, world-wide.)

So, in the old days our marketing featured one photo and a short description and was distributed locally.Today, each listing is digitally exposed with typically at least 25 photos, video walk-throughs and virtual tours which are exposed all over the World Wide Web.

Here’s the crazy part.We obtain these listings, pay to have them professionally photographed and give them to these websites so they can market them for us - and then they sell the leads back to us.In a recent meeting with REALTOR.com they told me that the Internet now generates over 50 Million real estate leads annually.Wait a minute! – the National Association of Realtors is only forecasting 5.3 million homes sales in the US this year and I suspect that less than 20% of the homes (just over 1 million) that are sold are sold to buyers who inquired over the Internet.So, what’s going on with the other 49,000,000 leads?

I think we’ve created a Monster.What this tells me is that while the Internet is great for exposing our listings, if you’re serious about selling your home, you can’t rely on Internet Marketing to get your property sold. What you need is a large brokerage with a huge network of agents who are finding the other 4.3 million buyers who aren’t buying homes on the web.Sure, 96% of the buyers start their search on the web but the end up contacting an agent to help them navigate the process from home showing to closing.

At CENTURY 21 Beggins we’ve developed exceptional systems to help Buyers understand the market and sort through the many options available to them, and we’ve created a phenomenal marketing process to get homes sold for our Sellers. We understand the markets that we serve and we know the contract details inside and out.As the provider of Life Betterment Solutions, we’re here to help.If you’re even remotely thinking of Moving Up – Moving Down - or Simply Moving Around, please feel free to reach out to us.We’re happy to Empower, Educate and Encourage you to make sound decisions.We’ve got your Back. J